We Pray for Children…
We pray for children
Who are overprogrammed by school,
Sports and music lessons,
Who spend all their allowance before
Wednesday, who want pizza and hot dogs rather than meat and
Broccoli;
And we pray for children
Who were born with AIDS or HIV,
who saw Daddy make a drug deal on the
front porch last night,
who attend schools with second-rate teachers
and leaking roofs
We pray for children
Who love to play in the mud and wonder how
Their clothes got dirty,
Who have computers and Game Boy and
Nintendo video games,
Who spill their cereal and forget to say grace.
And we pray for children
Who suffer from verbal abuse every day,
Who live with constant fear that divorce
Will split their family,
Who babysit themselves and watch TV till
Mom comes home.
We pray for children
Who have a new ball glove, the latest Schwinn bicycle
And a Razor scooter,
Who wish school would self-destruct before
Tuesday’s spelling test,
Who say it’s not fair that meat and salad come
Before ice cream;
And we pray for children
Who are bullied every day on their way home from school,
Whose kitchen cupboard is empty,
Who drop out of school to live in poverty for a lifetime.
We pray for children
Who melt our hearts with one little kiss,
Who tell family secrets and feel anxious about Santa Claus,
Who won’t clean their rooms without a fuss;
And we pray for children
Who will never to go Walt Disney World,
Who have no uncles, aunts or grandparents to spoil them,
Who have been molested by their priests or ministers.
We pray for children
Who are cherished by their parents,
Who grumble when pushed to try new foods,
Who put off homework until bedtime;
And we pray for children
Who relive 9/11 every time a plane flies overhead,
Who pick the neighbor’s tulips to give Mom a bouquet,
Who live with aging grandparents because Mom has deserted
Them and Dad is in jail.
We pray for children
Who are taught by gifted teachers in good schools,
Who can have any kind of sports equipment they want,
Who try to sneak to the supper table without
Washing their hands;
And we pray for children
Who fear that they might not live to grow up,
Who do not live with their family of origin because
Of divorce or abuse,
Who try not to cry when a friend gets beaten by
A gang member.
We pray for children
Who sneak cookies and hate vegetables,
Who sleep with the cat but never walk the dog,
Who love school except when it’s time to get up;
And we pray for children
who have toothaches but no money for dentistry care,
who stare through barred windows into a seedy,
rundown neighborhood,
who have lost a playmate to a drive-by shooting.
We pray for children
Who ride in Mom’s SUV with a “Kid’s Taxi” bumper sticker,
Who pretend to do homework while playing computer games,
Who live in the big house on the hill and wear trendy sneakers;
And we pray for children
Who have everything but no one to love them,
Who are dying because medical help came too late,
Who have never heard Bible stories.
We pray for children
Who worry about being too fat, too skinny,
Too old or too young,
Who almost made the honor roll,
Who are nurtured by a Sunday School teacher
And loved by their church;
And we pray for children
Who are dying for love and attention,
Who never had a kite, an allowance or an adult friend,
Who have no one to say “You’re great”
And “You can do it!”
We pray for children
Who love to wear the outlandish clothes their schoolmates are
Wearing,
Who forget their lunch money and their school assignments,
Who fret about sitting on the bench at Little League games;
And we pray for children
Who give birth to other children,
Who fear their school will have a shooting like Columbine’s,
Who have never heard about the love of Jesus.
We pray for children
Who tease little sisters and wonder why they tattle,
Who giggle and say precocious things and love life,
Who play Peekaboo with grandfatherly types at restaurants;
And we pray for children who have absentee fathers who never call,
Whose lives have no connection to what they see on TV
Who live with the reality of children crippled and killed by war
And terrorists.
(taken from "For Kid's Sake" by H. B. London)
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Oh Lord, be with these children. Open our eyes to those who need you today.
People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
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